The Church applies these words to Mary; let us try to see what they mean
and how far we may copy her in her determination. "The inheritance of
the Lord," what is it? The words bear many interpretations but we
cannot be wrong, surely, in thinking that this inheritance was Mary's
own soul; it was indeed "the inheritance of the Lord," an inheritance to
which the Blessed Trinity had a special right, the Father because He had
created her in grace, the Son because He had saved her from the stain of
original sin, the Holy Ghost because He had ever sanctified her and kept
her "full of grace." But what was it that made _this_ inheritance more
pleasing to God than any of the other souls which He had redeemed?
Mary's correspondence with grace we naturally answer; but what do we
mean by that? We mean, or we ought to mean, that Mary realized to the
full that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost lived
within her; and hence her resolution to abide in "the inheritance of the
Lord," never to leave her Divine Guest, never to forget that she was the
host and that it was her privilege to entertain. This is surely the
secret of Mary's life and of her correspondence with grace. She dwelt in
closest union with the God who dwelt within her.